During the times in middle school,
I probably had the least friends among my other classmates. All just because my
interest didn’t meet theirs. I always spent my time alone, playing with my
mobile phone, doing assignments by myself, and went to the canteen on my own,
too. It was lonely. So lonely. It continued until I graduated, and moved on to
a higher education level.
Even in high school, making friends
wasn’t as easy as my mom said. It took me a month to get to know with ONE
person. Imagine how much effort I took for it, not to mention that I had to
sync my thoughts with his (yes, he’s a guy), and it took me forever to do some
research beforehand. Most of my classmates were just the boring people who only
knew contemporary stuffs, like Katty Perry, Taylor Swift, et cetera.
Even until 2014 I was practically friendless,
but that all changed when my cousin showed me a video. It was an anime titled “Sword
Art Online II”. At that time I wasn’t really interested in anything Japanese,
but I decided to give the show a go. Then, as you might have guessed, I had
fallen into the world of “otaku”. I started looking up for other anime titles afterwards,
and when I realized it, I had already collected up to 50 anime titles by the
end of 2015.
I had also made a Japanese friend
during 2015 with my “so-so and self-studied” Japanese which I had only learned
for months. I met her through LINE, a messenger app you can find everywhere,
and we often chatted every day (I had to equip myself with a dictionary back
then). Even until now, we’re still in touch. I also started to actually
communicate with some of my friends who also watched anime like me.
Moving to 2016, my view on life had
drastically changed, as I started making friends with the “otakus” within my
school. We basically discussed about the current season’s anime titles, manga,
and even games (from Japan, of course). It was a fun time until I graduated.
There was also this game that I found in 2015. It’s called “osu!” It’s a rhythm
game in which you “click circles to the beat”. I joined the online society
there, and started to know the people there one by one, as I progressed deeper
into the game. One guy suddenly sent a message to me, telling that we should
meet since we’re in the same regency.
Then we proceeded to meet. It turned
out that he was a professional osu! player who lived just a few clicks from my
home. We shared some stuff about the game, and got to know each other better.
My life was getting even better than before.
After I started attending college,
I was then invited by one of my classmates to join an “otaku” group within the
faculty. I joined, and started sharing everything I knew about anime and stuff.
By the end of 2016, I had already made so many friends with lots of things to
talk and share.
Moving on to 2017, I joined the
regional osu! Community freshly made that year. Literally more things to share,
and more friends to talk with. I was so excited to be able to have a
face-to-face showdown of osu! with someone. I also input myself into a game
named Kancolle, and joined the regional community as well. By the start of
2017, I had already known tens of people, thanks to similar hobbies.
One thing to note: anime really
changed my life.
(A real life experience by someone)
-Ardiansyah